Let's talk it out: Anna Hazare to Govt

NEW DELHI: A day before the joint drafting committee meeting on the Lokpal Bill, anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare has said that differences between government and civil society members could be resolved through dialogue and not confrontation. Even as Congress threw its weight behind finance minister and bill drafting committee chairman Pranab Mukherjee, over his scathing remarks against civil society members, Hazare and his team refused to be drawn into the slugfest . Hazare said he cannot stop anyone from leveling allegations that he was a mask of RSS or BJP.

"How can I put hand on their mouth? In my lifetime, I have never gone close to any political party . Every party is similar. Some are graduates in corruption while some others have got doctorates in corruption," he said. Sharp differences have come to the fore between the government and civil society members over inclusion of the PM, judiciary and MPs' conduct in Parliament under the purview of Lokpal. "Differences can be resolved through talks and not through confrontation . We feel the government has accepted some of our demands and alot more needs to be done. There is time till June 30," Hazare told reporters here.

"If nothing happens, we will see then." Hazare said civil society will put forth its views during Wednesday's meeting and if their demands were not met, then they will start their agitation again. Over the past one week, there has been exchange of sharp words between the two sides. While Congress had stayed away from the verbal exchange between the Government and the civil society, it stepped in to up the ante on Monday by openly attacking Hazare. Magsaysay award winner and committee member Arvind Kejriwal refused to react to Congress' 'unelected tyrant' attack and said that civil society would not raise this issue in the drafting committee meeting on Wednesday evening .

Speaking to ET, Kejriwal said, "We don't want to get into a verbal duel with the government. They want to divert attention from the Lokpal Bill with this rhetoric. We want to discuss Lokpal Bill only. We challenge Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the Prime Minister, Congress and the government to have an open debate on Lokpal Bill. Lets talk on facts." The five civil society members of the panel will meet on Wednesday afternoon to chalk out the strategy for the meeting. Kejriwal said, "We would want to discuss the model of Lokpal. The government has envisaged an 11-member body to decide on every case. But we want this Lokpal to have a supervisory role otherwise the entire process would collapse within two days. We would like to discuss these issues on Wednesday."

Congress also came out in support of Mukherjee's statement against civil society members. Party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said: "There is nothing wrong in what Pranab Mukherjee has said. After all there is a way of running a democracy. The world over in all democracies there is a process to know people's views ...If someone suddenly stands up in the name of civil society saying elections must have happened but we don't agree, how would the people feel? Everyone needs to go through this democratic process."